Blevins family calls on community to talk about shooting

Police, BCA not invited to Wednesday meeting

A call for justice from family members of Thurman Blevins, the man who was shot and killed by Minneapolis Police Department officers last month.

"We know they murdered him, that's clear as day," said Sydney Brown, Thurman's cousin, who joined his aunt and sister gathered in front of city hall to talk about the June 23 shooting.

Janette Blevins says she just talked with her brother a few days before.

"He had lots of stuff planned, things he wanted to do with his kids, things that he wanted to accomplish," she said. "He didn't get to do that, because that was taken away from him."

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Family members are hosting community meeting Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Jenny Lind Elementary. Police and BCA officials aren't invited. They want to hear from people who were nearby when the shots rang out, while waiting for police body camera video to be released.

"There has been notice from Mayor Frey that hopefully, sometime next week," said Brown. "Hopefully. That's not too accurate yet."

And they're not interested in seeing only part of the video.

"If the video footage does not show the actual whole clip when these two officers got out of their vehicle, then there's no reason that you should be showing this video footage at all," she said.

Brown says mayor Jacob Frey will show the family the body camera video, but it's not known when that will happen. Family spokesman Mevin Reeves said there is a lot of speculation about the video release, but it's all just speculation right now.

BCA superintendent Drew Evans is attending a separate meeting that's scheduled for Thursday, a day after the Blevins family gathering. It'll take place at Weber Park in Minneapolis, starting at 6:00 p.m.

The head of the Minneapolis police union says the two officers faced a direct threat when they shot Blevins.